$1 Million Federal Verdict Ends Streak of About 20 Straight Defense Wins in South Dakota Med-Mal Cases
Won by Russ Janklow Law.
A federal jury in Sioux Falls awarded $1 million to a patient whose doctor failed to diagnose a post-surgical site infection, ending a streak of roughly 20 consecutive defense verdicts in South Dakota medical malpractice cases.
What happened
After surgery, a patient began showing signs of a wound infection. The treating physician did not recognize the infection in time, and the condition worsened. That failure to diagnose and treat the post-surgical complication formed the core of the malpractice claim.
The patient brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota, presided over by Judge Karen Schreier. The case went to trial in late February and early March 2023, with attorneys Jami Bishop and Erin Schoenbeck Byre of Johnson, Janklow and Abdallah, LLP trying the plaintiff's case.
For Bishop, the trial was her first as lead counsel. Over about a week of proceedings, she and co-counsel Schoenbeck Byre presented expert testimony on the standard of care for post-operative monitoring and on what timely treatment would have prevented.
The jury deliberated for four hours and returned a unanimous verdict on March 3, 2023, finding that the doctor had breached the standard of care. Judge Schreier entered judgment for $1,000,000 three days later, on March 6, 2023.
The result carried weight beyond the dollar figure. South Dakota has long been one of the most difficult states for medical malpractice plaintiffs. Defense attorneys and plaintiff lawyers in the field had noted a string of dozens of consecutive defense verdicts in similar cases going back close to two decades. Russ Janklow, a partner at the firm, said at the time that he could not recall a plaintiff prevailing in a Sioux Falls medical malpractice case in nearly 20 years. The March 2023 verdict broke that streak.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Russ Janklow Law
All Russ Janklow Law proven verdicts →On January 26, 1998, Julie and Erica Boomsma drove into a railroad flatcar blocking an elevator-service crossing in Wolsey, South Dakota, where the flashing lights were not working and the crossbuck understated the number of tracks. Julie broke her neck, right leg and right ankle and was left disabled; Erica had a cracked sinus, a concussion and a contusion. A jury awarded Julie and her husband $1,059,873.40 and Erica $21,781.88, and the South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed.
Scott Abdallah obtained a pre-trial settlement against Deerfield Hutterian Brethren Colony on behalf of the family of Vannah Decker, a 15-year-old killed when a 17-year-old colony member drove an unlicensed, alcohol-impaired joyride at nearly 100 mph in a colony-owned vehicle.
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